Read More

The support group chairman, town councillor Pat Hanlon, said: “There are going to be a lot of tears. They are going to be absolutely shocked. It gives people who have got autism, who have got autistic children, someone to talk to about it. They will be absolutely devastated.”

Autism Suffolk is run by the National Autistic Society.

Tom Purser, a spokesperson for the society, said it had seen its funding from Suffolk County Council reduced annually over the last three years. He said despite fundraising, applying for grants and downsizing, the service was not able to keep running without continued core funding.

He continued: “We understand how disappointing this is for many local children and families and are closing gradually, so we can minimise the impact. We’re also making every effort to ensure families can access other forms of local support and the charity’s local branches and Helpline. We’ll also be able to keep open the social media support group, thanks to a volunteer.”

Read More

County councillor Tony Goldson said as a result of talks over the last three years, Autism Suffolk had understood it would face budget cuts.

He continued: “We have offered time and support to assist them in finding other potential funding streams to continue their work. That offer remains. It is their decision to close at this point, the council has not instructed them to do so and we would welcome further discussion to see if we can help them going forward.”

A petition has been started to try to stop the closure.

You can sign it at change.org/p/suffolk-county-council-stop-autism-suffolk-closure